Climate views of Trump Advisor Myron Ebell’s Enterprise Inst.

DESMOG CLEARING THE PR POLLUTION THAT CLOUDS CLIMATE SCIENCE Insights Into the Thinking of Trump Advisor Myron Ebell’s Competitive Enterprise Institute on Climate Change By Justin Mikulka • Sunday, November 27, 2016 – 04:58 The 20th Annual National Conference on Private Property Rights was held on October 22nd in Albany, NY. Although this was an… [Read More]

The 20th Annual National Conference on Private Property Rights was held on October 22nd in Albany, NY. Although this was an association supposedly concerned about property rights, two speakers from the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) spoke about climate change science. The Competitive Enterprise Institute is where Myron Ebell — the man Donald Trump has since appointed to oversee the dismantling of the EPA during the transition, has been employed for years as the Director of Energy and Environment.
Between the content of the talks of the two Ivy League educated speakers, Sam Kazman and Marlo Lewis, Jr., it isn’t hard to figure out how Myron Ebell will approach the issue of climate science as part of the Trump administration. Here were some of the highlights.
breakEfforts to Address Climate Change Are “Anti-human”
Sam Kazman was up first with a talk titled “The Right to Dissent Global Warming Doctrine” (PDF) and covered a lot of ground, from defending ExxonMobil and attacking various Attorneys General to making the case that efforts to hold fossil fuel companies accountable were nothing more than a scheme to make lawyers rich — using Big Tobacco as his proof.
However, it was Kazman’s concluding statements where he offered up some new ideas on what climate change is really about. We’ve been hearing for a while from the oil industry about how its members “have done more as an industry to advance the cause of raising living standards across the world than any other industry…” as the CEO of pipeline giant Kinder Morgan told an industry conference in 2015.
And of course coal is being sold as a way to lift the world out of poverty. Apparently the fossil fuel industry just really cares about poor people.
And Sam Kazman echoed that repeatedly, including expressing his concern about the living conditions in Africa.
“If you get people buying into the mindset that energy, that affordable energy, is a sin product I think you’ve got civilization by the throat. In this country it’s going to cost us a hell of a lot. In less developed countries, in parts of Africa and Asia, it is a death sentence.”
Not satisfied with the idea that efforts to combat climate change were taking civilization “by the throat” Kazman then took the rhetoric to a whole new level when he gave his opinion on the motivation of people working to stop climate change.
“To many of these people we have global blight and it consists of the fact that people are alive and living their lives and having kids and flourishing. And so, frankly, I see this entire campaign as something that in a roundabout way is aimed at reducing the ability of people, reducing the number of people, the ability of people to live the lives they like, the number of people in terms of children on this planet. It’s an anti-human campaign at its worst. Thank you.”Global Warming – “there’s really nothing to it”